As of writing we have only seen one other mask with its boost and replenish condition (Cat mask, mystic, boosts Willpower/Combat, and replenishes both offerings on doom being placed on a card that doesn't have any).

I think Sparrow Mask will likely be the best, or most universally useful. Willpower and Agility are not the 'do something' stats, when you need to pass a test for these it's often critical for an encounter/scenario card. +2 can push a coin toss to very likely to succeed, and I think this will have wide play for investigators who need it. Bob (especially), Darrell, Rita and Daniella can probably all use this to shore up some of their weaker side (HP for Darrell, Sanity for Rita and Daniella) by shoring up their defenses, while Bob can hand out masks to others.

With respect to the masks in general, they are all (likely) level 0 so they can be used by the Dunwich investigators which also seems strong for Pete (boosting Duke's tests if there is a combat/intellect one).

Edit: How wrong I was, these masks are all insane. Getting primary stat boosts multiple times per scenario is incredibly good, and at only 1 resource even getting the effect twice is fine. Guardians get combat, seekers get Intellect, rogues get agility AND intellect. These are possibly what the talent cards in the base set should have been.

This is the Return to the Night of the Zealot's replacement for Ghoul Minion, and it's just as squishy as the original yet it has a new relevant ability. It still dies in one hit from a weapon or spell but has an uncomplicated, straightforward ability that makes you want to watch out for it just a little bit more. Plus it plays into the rest of the "forcing you to discard cards"/"having no cards in hand" theme that the rest of this Return To campaign has, the entire purpose of which seems to be to foreshadow Umôrdhoth's Wrath and to make it even scarier when it comes out. Overall I like it.

Looks like it will become "Bugging Yurei" in the future. Its unique mechanism that attacks investigator during chaos token revealing can cause plenty of issues.

Let me first: what if someone plays Hypnotic Gaze to cancel its attack during a skill test? Let's say the investigator is testing (3) and reveals a , then they plays Hypnotic Gaze to cancel that attack and then to reveal a chaos token following Hypnotic Gaze's ability. Before this revealing, should they put the token drawn before back to the chaos bag first? Though the rule specified that skill tests cannot be embedded, this chaos token revealing is actually not a skill test.

Vicious Blow is probably the most used card in this game, tied with Deduction, and their omnipresence in deckbuilding hasn't decreased since the core game came out.

Long Shot arrives much later in the game and looks very similar, with just a few exceptions:

• Cons:
  • No icons
• Pros:
  • Can be committed to evasion tests
  • Can be committed to a test at a connecting location
  • No icon means it can be committed to non- attacks like Mystic Spells, or Rogue Tricks. (Thanks @dscarpac for pointing it out in the comment)
• Other:
  • Is in a different class.
  • Tommy Muldoon, William Yorick and Amanda Sharpe can take both.

At this state of the game, anyone using a full collection should not experience difficulties passing tests anymore in Easy/Standard or even Hard mode if they optimise their decks slightly, so the downside of the missing icon seems less important than the flexibility offered by Long Shot.

So, will it be a new staple for any fighty ? Let's find out when users start publishing decks!

I think the reviews on this page are outdated after multiple expansions have added to the cardpool and I wanted to point out that I think this weakness is now pretty reasonable to deal with, and statistically, is probably just going to cost you 1 damage and 1 horror. It could do more if you fail tests, but Rita now has a few ways of dealing with this.

The primary way now that is unmentioned is with Sweeping Kick from Edge of the Earth. If you hold one of these in hand (assuming you draw it before Hoods) this is a 3 damage attack with rita baseline 8 to 3. Even the -5 in Forgotten Age poses no threat here. The hoods attacks you for 1 damage and 1 horror, and of course, taking the horror isn't good, but hopefully you have Rita's Boyfriend out by now. Taking this option from scenario 1 requires In The Thick of It, and Rita has the health pool to willingly take the 2 physical Trauma.

A more expensive way of removing them from the deck if you intend to cycle, is Fend Off 3. You once again take the 1 damage and 1 horror, but then you never worry about this aloof enemy ever again. Someone else has already mentioned the overcommitting needed on something like Brute Force, but it isn't out of the question to have Overpower or a Gravediggers Shovel handy, which puts you at 8 to 3, needing to oversucceed by 2 which is statistically most of the bag most of the time.

At the time of writing this review just before the release of Hemlock Vale, we have had spoiled a symbol-less Survivor version of Vicious Blow, called Long Shot which can add the needed +1 damage to a Derringer or Baseball Bat attack. This method if you're going the combat stat could result in a single fight action, basically completely neutering Hoods as a weakness.

As of now, I think the cardpool is just getting more flexible, and as it does, the Hoods becomes a weaker and less threatening weakness. As you get some XP into your deck, it becomes yet easier. I think as of now, Hoods is a below average weakness with multiple ways of dealing with it, and statistically the worst outcome seems to be 2 actions and 1 point of damage and horror, which is pretty manageable. Barring autofails, this weakness can be a single action to deal with in a variety of ways. Timing of course can change things, and enemy weaknesses should never be underestimated for showing up at the worst possible time, but I think at this point, no matter how Rita chooses to fight them off, they just aren't much of a threat, because they are just yet another enemy, and Rita is done runnin'.